A Nation of Wimps

Urban Baby weighed in today with a great review of A Nation of Wimps. After running some items from the Wimps Checklist, this is what UB had to say:

"Wake up!" says author Hara Estroff Marano, editor-at-large at Psychology Today and mother of two. Her compelling new book, A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting, investigates how helicopter parenting has hit the mainstream - with adverse effects. (By now everyone has heard stories of parents who go on job interviews with their twenty-something offspring - then call HR to negotiate a raise.)

After delving into the what and how of the issue (parental over-involvement, even with the best intentions, hinders a child's development, socially and emotionally), Marano offers guidance on how to be supportive without being overprotective - and how to prepare kids for the real world.

Don't wimp out.

Available online at amazon.com.

The book hasn't been out 24 hours, and these wonderful words were sent to me by KL in Denver:

"I am in the process of reading your book, and I think it is really well written and your information has already helped me become better at parenting.  I thank you for that, and so do my kids.  

"I think the book should come with a highlighter, since there are so many poignant pieces of information."  

Children's play has an image problem. People think it's...kid's play. But the importance of play is entirely counterintuitive. Play LOOKS LIKE a waste of time, because it is not goal-directed. And we adults are goal- directed. So we trivialize kids' play. It gets in the way of other things on the way to achievement, a goal we very much want for our kids and are very worried about these days--counterproductively, I believe.